Hot MesseS Yard Sale

Whew!

I'm glad that's over! I'd be lying if I said otherwise. However, we did get rid of a bunch of stuff, hung out, and raised just over $350 for our team!

When our team & support met back in February to kick off our 2015 walk, one of the fundraising ideas that came up was to do a yard sale. Then time passed and we mostly forgot about it. Some time in April, Aunt Marylen brought us all back on track.

A flurry of emails went back and forth between us all covering dates, locations, times, & all the details we could think of to successfully have a yard sale. It turned out that we would do the yard sale at my house on a Sunday in June. Not necessarily an ideal time (it is suggested Saturdays are better), but it was a time that worked for us and we made it work.

A few weeks before, I asked everyone to drop off their items to sell so we could get an overview of what we had, price things out, and be ready to go. That didn't happen. I spent those hours napping & catching up on some season finales.

I began to worry that we weren't going to have anything to sell and it would all be a flop. Kate stopped by the next day with a few boxes and I began to have some hope. Later that week when I came home from work, my roommate informed me that my uncle had dropped things off for the yard sale. I peeked inside and the pile was growing. Good, this was going to work after all.

Finally the weekend was here for the yard sale. Aunt Marylen, my mother, and Jill were in my garage pricing things out when I returned from work on that Saturday (Thanks to the price tags Paula donated!). I was ready for a nap, but I stayed and helped them get everything tagged and sorted. Thankfully they had a bunch already done.

We wanted to get as much done as we could on Saturday so we wouldn't have to do it Sunday. Happy to say, most of it was done by the time our stomachs growled. We checked in with our father about dinner. Dad said he was on his way down, so we began making signs. Jill put her inner artist to work while Dad used his mechanical skill that the rest of us lack to put the 5 roadside signs together. Then, it was finally time for some Pizza Place.

Jill crashed at my house that night and we were up early to set up. We borrowed tables from a local fire department and a few friends let us use their pop-up tents. Showers were in the area overnight and lingering in the morning. Our mother popped by and said the signs she put out were already drooping with the rain. A quick fix and a few extra signs, and she was back on the road strategically planting them.

Our sale hours were posted 8-2pm. We knew to expect people early, so we were mostly ready. We set up tables in the garage and then two of the pop-up tents coming out of the garage. The sky began to lighten and we knew it wasn't going to be a wash-out. Our first customer showed up at 7:40am. Not bad. And he bought items...even better! From there on through we had a pretty steady stream of customers & some browsers.

Rachel showed up with some delicious fruit, and Aunt Marylen came with bagels and cream cheese. Aunts Mary & Irene came by with Julie and hung around for a while. Jackie showed up with a burst of energy that we needed mid-morning. A few friends stopped by to make donations. Our mother stayed the whole time and caught up with old friends that stopped by. It was a great excuse to see everyone, and with everyone there, it made the day fly by.

After noon the crowds started to dwindle. We rearranged items throughout the day and moved things out of the garage. Jackie was determined to get more sales/donations so she found my old horse costume. With the help of my mother and sister, she was dressed and ready to go. She galloped out to the roadside and waved people in. The cars that came in afterwards, said they came in because of her. Good to know she still lives up to "Wacky Jacky!"

As the end drew near, I counted out the bank we started with and made sure we were paid back. The surplus was hard to guess as it was all in a Tupperware container. We took some guesses, but mostly agreed that if we made over $100, it was worth it.

All in all, we were successful. We raised over $350, which we split evenly among the team, and we got rid of most items. The things that were left over we were able to load into Jill & Jackie's cars to drop off at a donation bin.

Thank you to everyone who helped, stopped by, donated, and shared our event!! We look forward to seeing you at our next event: Paint Night!